


Scars

by Lady_Sci_Fi



Series: A Life Together [3]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (1963), Sarah Jane Adventures
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-20
Updated: 2019-09-20
Packaged: 2020-10-24 10:40:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20704619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_Sci_Fi/pseuds/Lady_Sci_Fi
Summary: Sarah opens up about the scars she's received since she and the Doctor parted all those years ago.





	Scars

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place between chapters 4 and 5 of "Settling In."  
Relates to my SJA-era headcanon about Sarah, where she always wears long sleeves because of a prominent scar on her arm.

“I’ve noticed something about you,” the Doctor said to Sarah as she quickly changed into her pyjama tanktop and trousers.

She pulled on her robe. “Oh?”

“And I think it relates to some things you haven’t told me about yet.”

Sarah sat on the edge of the bed and looked up at him, expecting his guess. She had a good idea what this would be about.

“I haven’t seen you in short sleeves once you get out of bed in the morning,” the Timelord stated.

“Oh… you noticed that, have you?” She wasn’t surprised, not really. He could be so perceptive of little things like this. But then again, sometimes the tiny things escaped his notice. She supposed she’d hoped this would have been in the latter category.

The Doctor nodded. He kneeled in front of her and took her left hand between both of his. He brought it up to kiss the thumb before moving one of his hands to push up the sleeve of the robe. At Sarah’s intake of breath, he stopped, but still prompted, “Am I right in that it has to do with this?” His thumb went under the sleeve to feel the scar on the outside of her forearm, about a couple inches above her wrist.

Sarah flinched, but didn’t pull away. “My style could’ve changed since we parted. In fact, I’m absolutely certain it has,” she said as an excuse. She didn’t expect him to accept it.

“That is a possibility, but at all times, even inside the house?”

Sarah exhaled slowly and relented, “Yeah…”

“You said you’d tell me later when I noticed them the night I returned.”

Sarah snorted with a little smile. “I suppose over a week is later enough.”

“If it’s too uncomfortable, you don’t have to. I could ask again later, or not at all if-”

Sarah shook her head. “No, it’s fine. But first…” She raised her other hand to touch the light scar on the Doctor’s upper lip. “You haven’t told me about this one.”

“I haven’t?”

Sarah shook her head.

“An animal, not too dissimilar from a dog, attacked me. It seemed to take particular offense to my mouth.” He stated this lightly, with no ill effect in his tone.

Sarah snorted a short laugh. “I’m sure many people have the same sentiment. What did you say to it?”

“‘Hello.’”

“You poor thing,” Sarah replied with a little amused grin. She leaned forward to kiss the old injury.

“That doesn’t get you off the hook,” the Timelord said when the woman pulled away.

“Worth a shot.” With a sigh, she pulled her hand from the Doctor’s to take off her robe, exposing the scar. It went up the length of her arm, almost to her shoulder. Continuous except for the break of the dark line around the elbow.

The Doctor visually studied it, this being the first time he had been able to get a long enough look at it.

“Not long before I met the older you in 2007, I was stopping some group who had gotten their hands on alien weaponry. Unfortunately, one of those weapons was a sort of… energy sword.” She grimaced at the memory.

_Sarah fell backwards to the floor, and the man swung the weapon, the blade pulsing with a red energy. _

_ Sarah raised her arm, and the scream from the sudden intense pain caught in her throat. She fell completely to the floor, cradling her arm. Her eyes squeezed shut, and she didn’t want to open them to see the damage that she could feel down the entire length. _

_ She did open her eyes, just to see the man prepare to take another swing at her. She released her breath as one of the police took him down with a taser. _

_ Only now could she scream out the agony. She turned over onto her side, and looked down. The sword had opened a deep cut, and though it wasn’t clear through all the blood, it looked like the separated skin had darkened from the energy. _

_ Sarah breathed heavily, and somehow managed to tear her eyes away from the sight to push herself up enough on her other arm to try to scoot backwards out of the way of the fight. She didn’t make it very far before blacking out. _

“I raised my arm to defend myself. It was all I could do. Thankfully, he only got that one shallow swing before someone took him down.” She hummed. “I was lucky not to have lost my arm. And extremely lucky I didn’t lose any feeling or function in it.”

The Doctor nodded. “All it left was a mark. That is fortunate.”

“A huge unsightly mark.”

The Doctor met Sarah’s gaze. “Are you ashamed of it?”

“No. I just… I just don’t like people seeing it, is all.” Unconsciously, she lifted her other hand to cover part of the scar on her upper arm.

“You seem to be alright with me seeing it.”

“Yeah well, you’re different.” She said it a little too forcefully, and added, “Sorry.”

The Doctor wasn’t offended. “I don’t think it’s unsightly.”

Sarah looked down between them. “You’d say that anyway.”

“Have you known me to be insincere with you?”

Sarah shook her head, and smiled at the kiss to her temple.

The Doctor pulled away. “Luke and the others haven’t seen it?”

“No.” Sarah’s gaze returned up to his. “Like I said, I don't like anyone seeing it. Except you. Not that I like you seeing it, either, but I’m… you know what I mean.”

The Timelord nodded. He hesitantly brushed his thumb over the start of the scar above her wrist. Again, she didn’t pull away, and this time he tenderly traced up it with his finger. Sarah shivered, and watched his finger slowly move up along her arm.

“I’m relieved to know it doesn't cause you any pain or other possible lingering effects.” The Doctor’s fingers reached Sarah’s shoulder and gently massaged it.

“It took a good bit to heal, but… yeah. Wish it could’ve done that better, that it hadn’t left behind such an ugly scar.”

“You are still so very beautiful. It, like the experience it came from, is simply a part of you.”

“I’m not quite sure what direction that’s supposed to go in,” Sarah replied, half-teasing.

The Doctor half-grinned, then rose and moved in to capture her lips in a kiss. She laid back on the bed, and he followed, not breaking the contact.

Sarah’s hand went to his bare chest, and felt a scar just next to his left heart. She knew where that one had come from, a terrifying adventure in the far-future of Europa. But the one on his back below his ribcage she didn’t know. When her fingers lingered over it, he answered, “Explosion shrapnel.”

They continued kissing and touching for a moment, until the Doctor's hand closed over a circular scar on Sarah’s right side. “This one?” he prompted, stopped himself from asking about it when she had deflected answering about the one on her arm before. He determined it as the second most prominent one on her body.

Sarah pushed him up to get out from under him to prop herself on her elbows and sit up halfway. She didn’t tell him to remove his hand. “That one...” She shuddered at the memory. “That one’s from a trip with Josh and Nat.”

_“You can’t shoot what you can’t see!” Sarah turned off the torch, plunging the underground chamber into complete darkness._

_ But the wild blindly-fired shot caught Sarah, and she cried out and dropped to the ground, clutching at her side. She curled in on herself, feeling her own blood leaking through her fingers._

_ “Josh…?” she whimpered. _

_ More shots, this time from two guns. “Josh!?” Sarah tried to call out, but her voice sounded weak. She felt herself fading fast._

_ “SJ!” _

_ Another gunshot, and this time there was no similar response. “J-Josh…” Sarah’s voice was barely a whisper this time, and though she fought, her eyes closed, and she felt herself slip into more darkness._

“Florence, Italy. Shot, with a normal gun. Nearly died from it.” She shuddered again, this time at the sensation of the Doctor’s fingers ghosting around the scar.

The Timelord moved in to nuzzle his nose against Sarah’s cheek. Both scars were results of things that could’ve easily taken her life. Words couldn’t express his relief that these scars were all that remained of those incidents.

“Doctor?” Sarah responded to the almost desperate way the man caressed the side of her face with a hand as he continued to nuzzle the other side.

“I love you,” he whispered. “Every part of you.” His hand went around the back of her head. “That hasn’t changed a single bit. Not with time, and not with these.” He drew back to see her face. “You don't… you don’t think I think any less of you, do you?”

“No, no, of course not,” Sarah replied sincerely.

“What about your kids? Do you think they would?”

Sarah shook her head after a few seconds. “It’s just… just something I still have to come to terms with. That’s all.”

“Well, then I’m glad you’re comfortable enough around me to not hide them.”

Sarah joked, “It would be harder to hide them around you, when we’re…” She glanced down at their nearly half-naked state.

“Indeed,” the Doctor chuckled.

Sarah sighed and shook her head with an adoring little smile. “You’re wonderful, you know that?”

“I believe it, especially when it comes from you.” He asked, “So, what do you think of my newer ones?”

“They’re not as visibly bad as mine.” Sarah glanced down shyly. “But that doesn’t really matter,” she understood.

The Doctor nodded with an adoring grin that matched Sarah’s. She pulled him close to press their foreheads together.

After a long slow kiss, they settled back against the pillows together, the Doctor’s arm around her and his fingers stroking up and down her scarred upper arm. The side of her head rested against the right side of his chest. She closed her eyes, listening to the heart, near the scar, that had nearly stopped on that particular adventure.

She wasn’t going to stop wearing long sleeves anytime soon, still not wanting Luke and the others to see it, but she did feel better about it. Not that she ever expected the Doctor to be negative about it, but it was still nice to hear the words of encouragement and love from him.

“Thanks,” she said softly.

“Of course, Sarah.”

She lifted her head as he aimed his down, and they met in the middle in another kiss.


End file.
